Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned Gulf nations against Western influence while calling for national unity in a newly published written message.
As far as 1970’ autocratic dictatorships go, Iran was probably one of the most “liberal”. But it was still a brutal regime. The SAVAK tortured, imprisoned, disappeared and murdered countless opponents domestically and abroad, becoming one of the leading reasons of the Iranian revolution of '79. The fact that the Shah’s regime was replaced by an even worse and more repressive one doesn’t mean we can look at it through rose tinted glasses.
I don’t think anyone is saying that the Shah was a good ruler. He was NOT, and he was propped up by US, UK because he was friendly to their interests. That’s the whole problem that is the reason the current regime was put in place in 1979.
Prior to the Shah, Iranians had a better regime but it wasn’t friendly to US, UK interests so was overthrown by the US, UK.
The “lesson learned” should have been that meddling in regime change can result in a worse outcome. US, UK thought the democratically elected regime wasn’t friendly enough to them, they installed the Shah, then ended up instead with an even less friendly regime.
Now we see the Republicans didn’t learn that lesson, because their voters largely don’t know the history. So here we are again, tried to meddle in regime change and likely just made their regime stronger and even less friendly.
As far as 1970’ autocratic dictatorships go, Iran was probably one of the most “liberal”. But it was still a brutal regime. The SAVAK tortured, imprisoned, disappeared and murdered countless opponents domestically and abroad, becoming one of the leading reasons of the Iranian revolution of '79. The fact that the Shah’s regime was replaced by an even worse and more repressive one doesn’t mean we can look at it through rose tinted glasses.
I don’t think anyone is saying that the Shah was a good ruler. He was NOT, and he was propped up by US, UK because he was friendly to their interests. That’s the whole problem that is the reason the current regime was put in place in 1979.
Prior to the Shah, Iranians had a better regime but it wasn’t friendly to US, UK interests so was overthrown by the US, UK.
The “lesson learned” should have been that meddling in regime change can result in a worse outcome. US, UK thought the democratically elected regime wasn’t friendly enough to them, they installed the Shah, then ended up instead with an even less friendly regime.
Now we see the Republicans didn’t learn that lesson, because their voters largely don’t know the history. So here we are again, tried to meddle in regime change and likely just made their regime stronger and even less friendly.
I love how you picked 1970 as your starting days. What happened before 1970…